Tuesday, May 25, 2010

On Monday, May 24th the Cook Arts Center held its Spring Dance Recital to celebrate the hard work of all the students enrolled in dance programs at the Arts Center this year. About 60 family members and friends came to watch the performance and celebrate the accomplishments of the students. The evening included performances by Grupo Tarasco, the Hawaiian dance class, the children's ballet class and Diagonal Alley. In addition, the child and adult sewing classes had a fashion show displaying the clothing and home projects they completed over the 6-week spring session. The evening concluded with a prize drawing where three lucky winners were given tickets to the Grand Rapids Ballet. Thank you so much to our great dancers (young and old!) and thank you also to our very talented instructors for yet another successful year of dance programs.

Friday, May 21, 2010

On Thursday, May 20th, Twink Frey came to the Cook Library Center to be our guest reader for our monthly Tolly Time storytime. Much to the delight of the children, Twink read "The Great Fuzz Frenzy" by Janet Stevens which is about a tennis ball landing in a prairie-dog town, which creates a crazy fiasco for the residents. Following the story, the students made an art project by stitching colorful threads on to fuzzy fabric. These pieces will be sewn together to make a blanket for Grandville Avenue Arts & Humanities' upcoming fundraiser, Dia del Sol, on June 17. Finally, at the very end of Tolly Time, each student received a free book to add to their own personal home library. Thank you to everyone who helped make the event a success and a great big thank you to Twink Frey for being our guest reader!

Thursday, May 20, 2010

It's hard to believe that it has been six weeks since we started the spring class session at the Cook Arts Center, but sadly, the session is coming to a close at the end of this week. We've had a fantastic spring class session with 28 class offerings and 244 students, from the age of 2 through adult, registered for classes. Over the last six weeks, we have had over 900 visits from our registered students! Although the spring session is wrapping up, we have much to look forward to. Summer programs begin in June and will include a mini arts camp as well as our two week summer arts camp called "Crossing Cultures". Call the Arts Center at 742-0692 for more information on how to register for classes.

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Pictured here are the quilters of one of the two quilts that will be inthe silent auction for our annual Dia del Sol fundraiser which will take place on Thursday, June 17 from 5:00-7:30pm. Miss Patti, our volunteer quilter, joined forces with our Cook Library Center students to create this beautiful quilt. After their homework was done, the students help Miss Patti design, machine quilt and handstitch the quilt. It is rightfully named, "Wild Sunflower Dance!". Please join us in celebration of this piece of art and many more at Dia del Sol!

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

As the spring class session at the Cook Arts Center winds to an end this week, we are taking some time to celebrate the accomplishments of the students who participated in spring classes over the past 6 weeks. On Monday, May 17th, the children's drawing class celebrated their last class with an art show. Parents, family members and friends were invited to the show to see the work that the children had created. Each child had an opportunity to present at least one of their drawings to the audience. Many children also read aloud poems which they had written on their drawings. Thanks to fantastic teaching by Cook Arts Center contract artist Sue Remes, the students learned a ton of new drawing skills and created some really beautiful artwork.

Thursday, May 13, 2010

One of the after-school art classes offered at the Cook Arts Center this spring is a Magnificient Masks class. Each week, students have been exploring different types of masks from various countries and cultural traditions. This week, the students created aboriginal masks using brown paper and acrylic paint. They painted the masks using a dot style typical of aboriginal work. The students worked very hard and the results were fantastic!

Monday, May 10, 2010

Please join us for our annual fundraiser, Día del Sol, on Thursday, June 17 from 5:00pm-7:30pm at the Cook Arts Center. Enjoy an evening of Latin music, fine food, and a silent auction featuring artwork, dinners, vacations, and more. Tickets are only $40 and all proceeds go to support the programs of the Cook Library Center and the Cook Arts Center.

On Thursday, May 6th, the Cook Library Center held a ceremony to unveil their Gold LEED Certification plaque and to thank the construction crew for their hard work to create our beautiful new library. LEED, which stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Standards, signifies buildings which were created with a certification in green building design. We are very proud to have obtained the gold level standard at the library and we will continue to educate the youth who participate in our programs on sustainable practices such as recycling and reducing consumption.

Friday, May 7, 2010

Madeline Kaczmarczyk, Cook Arts Center Pottery Studio Manager, has been keeping busy down in our pottery studio this spring class session. Between two after-school pottery classes, two children's potter's wheel classes, a parent and tot clay class and an adult open studio night, the creativity and excitement that our students have been pouring in to their projects has been overflowing! We invite you to take a "virtual" walk through our pottery studio through some of these photos taken by Madeline in our spring class session.

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Grupo Tarasco, the dance company of the Cook Arts Center, was very busy with multiple Cinco de Mayo performances around the Grand Rapids area today. The day started out with a morning performance at Ottawa Hills High School and continued on to dancing at El Sombrero restaurant on Bridge Street and finally concluded with another school performance at Immaculate Heart of Mary School.

The holiday of Cinco de Mayo, which is celebrated on May 5th, commemorates the victory of the Mexican militia over the French army at The Battle Of Puebla in 1862. Many people often think that the Cinco de Mayo celebration is related to Mexico's Independence Day which is actually celebrated on September 16. Instead, Cinco de Mayo recognizes the win at The Battle of Puebla at a critical time in Mexico's history. After finally gaining independence from Spain in 1821 The Battle of Puebla was a momentous occasion and established national unity.